Hindu Rashtra could become a reality

Hindu Rashtra could become a reality
With Mulayam’s help
By Faraz Ahmad
A month ago or maybe a little more, the prospective Uttar Pradesh elections appeared a lost case for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which thanks to Modi’s brilliant campaign and his factotum Amit Shah’s excellent organizational skills, had broken all records by winning 71 of the 81 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections, with two more going to its nominal allies. But no more, it appeared.
Modi lost farmers’ trust soon after assuming office as his first task was to overturn through an Ordinance, the Land Acquisition Bill of UPA government which made it almost impossible for the Government to acquire farmers’ land on behalf of private entrepreneurs giving a pittance as compensation. The UPA government had made the arbitrary acquisition of land by the government under any pretext, least of all, to barter away to the corporate honchos, virtually impossible. The Corporate sector had backed Modi’s candidacy confident of his ability to do away with it. But the UPA Bill gave the farmers enough reason to celebrate and Modi’s determined effort to scarp that legislation through a series of Ordinances gave sufficient ammunition to the Opposition to target Modi’s anti farmer and pro Corporate image and it gelled instantly with the farmers all over the country.
Next, his Government also tightened its fist on announcing adequate annual increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural produce, hitting the farmer hard. Third, once the BJP lost its head over its first ever victory in Haryana and decided to give the Jats a short shrift by making a Delhi Punjabi khatri trader, Manohar Lal Khattar the chief minister of the Jat fiefedom, even the Western UP Jat who got carried away by Amit Shah’s successful communal polarization in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and adjoining districts by whipping up the false propaganda of “love Jihad”, in the run up to the general elections, started seeing the light. Khattar who ran a shop in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar with no administrative or legislative experience whatsoever, was chosen to lead a development oriented state like Haryana, merely because he happened to be a RSS pracharak. It galled the Jats no end and they are still licking their wounds which manifested itself in the month-long reservation agitation, targeting Punjabis including their young women, earlier this year.
The tall poll promises of bringing down inflation, creating crores of jobs, bringing back black money, putting 15 lakh rupees in every person’s account and the watering down if not doing away with reservation for the SCc/STs (promised in hushed whispers to the Patidars in Gujarat, Marathas in Maharashtra and Jats in Rajasthan, Haryana western UP) all his factotum Amit Shah dismissed as just a “Jumla”. Naturally then the Opposition started making fun of both Modi and Shah and declared them as agents of the Corporate world which gelled instantly with the farmers and other poorer people all over the country.
Next, his Government also tightened its fist on announcing adequate annual increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural produce, hitting the farmer hard. Third, once the BJP lost its head over its first ever victory in Haryana and decided to give the Jats a short shrift by making a Delhi Punjabi khatri trader, Manohar Lal Khattar the chief minister of the Jat fiefedom, even the Western UP Jat who got carried away by Amit Shah’s successful communal polarization in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and adjoining districts by whipping up the false propaganda of “love Jihad”, in the run up to the general elections, started seeing the light. Khattar who ran a shop in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar with no administrative or legislative experience whatsoever, was chosen to lead a development oriented state like Haryana, merely because he happened to be a RSS pracharak. It galled the Jats no end and they are still licking their wounds which manifested itself in the month-long reservation agitation, targeting Punjabis including their young women, earlier this year.
In effect nothing was going in favour of the BJP in UP. Several moves like egging on the residents of Bisada to resort to communal agitation or all the hue and cry over Hindu migration from Muzaffarnagar area using the Human Rights Commission, again to effect communal polarization, failed to cut much ice with the local people. Then it dawned upon the BJP to raise “nationalist’ temperature through heightened campaign on so-called surgical strikes in Pakistan.
In the meantime Una atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat and later other related incidents, consolidated the Dalits against the BJP and it became evident that Mayawati would be the big gainer in the impending UP assembly elections causing further despair to the BJP which could see the prospects of a Dalit Muslim consolidation behind BSP chief Mayawati. That did not go down well with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav either, who would much rather have the BJP rule UP than Mayawati walk away with one solid pillar of his vote bank, the Muslim constituency. That’s when Mulayam in collusion with Amar Singh and even newly elected BJP MP and media baron Subhash Chandra, started working on alternate strategy of surreptitiously wooing the BJP. A deal was being worked out and the reported move to give away vast tracts of priceless land in NOIDA to that Sanghi sarkari sadhu, Baba Ramdev at Amar Singh and Subhash Chandra’s dinner, was part of that deal with Modi/Amit Shah. Though it’s not very clear how the BJP proposed to repay Mulayam’s debt for this gratitude. But Mulayam made no secret of his new found love for Modi by publicly reprimanding his son, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav while praising Modi and Advani. It also became evident that such was the pressure on Mulayam that he had no compunctions sacrificing even Akhilesh.
It is worth mentioning that in that public spat he openly admitted that Amar Singh saved him from going to jail (obviously on corruption charges) and goes without saying that it is the BJP government of Modi which would have made an example of Mulayam had Amar Singh not mediated. Perhaps that is why Amar Singh got a reentry into the SP all with an instant Rajya Sabha membership and party’s general secretaryship, despite widely known aversion that now expelled SP leader and Mulayam’s intellectual cousin Professor Ram Gopal Yadav and son Akhilesh hold for this “dalal” as they described him.
One need not be a genius to understand that this current turmoil in the SP would disillusion Mulayam’s core Yadav and other upwardly mobile rural voter, traditionally averse to Mayawati, and unlikely to look towards the Congress, leaving him with no option but to turn to the BJP. Even when Modi/Amit Shah’s highly divisive political campaign electorally conquered UP and Bihar in 2014, the Yadavs and Jatavs remained steadfast to their leaders both in UP and Bihar, Yadavs to Lalu Prasad in Bihar and to Mulayam in UP and the Jatavs to Mayawati even in 2014. The BJP is trying hard to break this fortress as well. Insiders disclose that BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav has been working very hard on Rabri Devi and Misa Devi promising a RJD government in Bihar sans Nitish with outside support from the BJP. But Lalu Yadav has been resisting this so far. It was unimaginable to visualize that Mulayam could even betray his son, deal a deathly blow to his party the SP and hurt his political interests. But now it is evident.
Though this is not the first time Mulayam has sabotaged the anti-BJP forces thereby helping the BJP and its allied forces. In 1990 had Mulayam not betrayed V P Singh there was no way Chandra Shekhar could have split the Janata Dal and formed the most disreputable government in the history of independent India, thereby paving the way for the rise of Hindutva forces.
Second, when it was apparent that the Ram Mandir crescendo was its peak and any mid-term election would have helped the BJP, Mulayam advised the then Governor to dissolve the UP assembly and hold simultaneous assembly elections as well defying the advice of the then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi who requested him to wait till the conclusion of the Lok Sabha mid-term polls and only after that make his move, if he so desired. Mulayam’s breakaway faction was then dependent on Congress support. That wiped out his party but also dealt a severe blow to the Congress and Janata Dal, from which neither could ever recover.
Then in 1993 he refused to align with the Janata Dal and instead aligned with the BSP. In the process Janata Dal was finished for-ever. Mulayam’s misbehaviour with Mayawati in 1995, made her into a perpetual rival to him in UP politics. In 1997 as United Front Defence Minister, he refused to allow Mayawati to become the UP chief minister and helped in the return of the BJP in UP.
In 1999 after the 13 month Vajpayee government fell on the floor of the Lok Sabha, L K Advani is on record to tell us that he gave an undertaking to the then Home Minister not to allow a Sonia Gandhi/Congress led Government replace the BJP led government. In return in 2003 when the BJP pulled support from Mayawati, its Governor invited Mulayam to form the Government and he promptly did that.
Now It is apparent that this infighting in the SP would despair SP’s Muslim voters who have no option but to drift to Mayawati. Already a good section of Muslim voter was getting disillusioned with the way Mulayam virtually abandoned the victims of Muzaffarnagar anti-Muslim progrom.
But if the BJP succeeds in generating sufficient anti -Muslim hysteria on triple talaq and succeeds in creating a frenzy on the so-called surgical strikes then the Upper caste together with the OBCs would logically swing towards the BJP. For Modi-Amit Shah duo the stakes are very high. If they lose UP, their downward slide even in their strongholds like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh may commence. But if they succeed in winning UP assembly polls due in early 2017, the Opposition would be so badly demoralized that winning back all the other assembly polls right up to 2019 general elections would be a cakewalk and the next logical step for the Sangh parivar would be to press for formal establishment of a Hindu Rashtra. If that happens, and it appears a distinct possibility, the Sanghis should erect Mulayam’s statue in Hazaratgunj as a tribute to someone who helped the Sanghis at all crucial junctures.
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